Plot: The
Homeguard - a racist, anti-alien group operating on Earth - has sent a group
undercover to cause problems on Babylon 5. Sinclair’s attempts to track down
the group come to nothing and the alien races begin to get restless after a
respected Minbari poet, Shaal Mayan, and two Centauri teenagers, Aria Tensus
and Kiron Maray (Vir Cotto’s cousin), are attacked.

Sinclair warns Ambassador Kosh about the problem and is
surprised to see the Vorlon studying images of Earth. Afterwards Sinclair
recalls how Lyta Alexander and Dr. Kyle were recalled to Earth after seeing
what the Vorlon looked like when he was injured, and ponders how Kosh was
poisoned through his encounter suit (PM).

Ivanova discovers that an old flame who has turned up on the
station, Malcolm Biggs, is the leader of Homeguard forces on Babylon 5 and she
and Sinclair set him up. The Homeguard operatives are captured and sent back to
Earth for trial.

Meanwhile, the two Centauri teenagers, Aria and Kiron, are
on the run from their families who have arranged marriages for them both to
other, older nobles when they are in love with one another. Vir asks for
Londo’s help in letting them marry one another, but Londo believes in the
traditions of his race. However, recalling his own unhappy marriage and his
three wives (‘Famine, Pestilence and Death’) waiting for him on the homeworld,
Londo decides to give the youngsters a better hope for the future and arranges
for them to join House Mollari. The prestige their families gain from this
connection allows them to marry without fear of loss of face.

MORE AFTER THE JUMP

The Arc: We meet Londo’s three wives in episode B8.

Ambassador Kosh is studying images of Earth history for
reasons unknown. We learn in episode B21 that the Vorlons have visited
Earth in secret (although not if Kosh himself has been there). Many of
Sinclair’s questions about the Vorlons are answered in episodes B17, B22
and D4.

Sinclair mentions the events of PM, most notably that Dr. Kyle and Lyta Alexander were both recalled
to Earth after seeing Kosh’s true appearance. This is further explored in
episode B19.

The Abbai send a new ambassador to the station, Mila Shar.
When they next appear in episode A9 they have a different representative
on the station.

Background: Many people on Earth are unhappy with the
number of aliens actually living on the human homeworld, buying up real estate
that should be for humans only.

The Homeguard have links with Earthforce, since they use
black ops camouflage suits, state-of-the-art technology.

The Centauri nobles arrange marriages for their sons and
daughters. Some believe this is outrageous and cruel, others think of it as
noble and traditional.

Centauri Prime is located 75 light-years from Babylon 5.

Abbai IV is the Abbai homeworld. The Abbai are an aquatic
species who are one of the leading powers in the League of Non-aligned Worlds.

During riots and confrontations with aliens, B5 Security
will often deploy wearing breather masks in case people try to flee into the
Alien Sector with its alternate atmosphere.

References: Slightly
randomly, Straczynski was asked on the Usenet B5 forum if the naming of the Homeguard operative as “Malcolm Biggs”
was a nod to Malcolm X and making a point about extremist groups. Straczynski
pointed out that all they shared was a first name.

In an example of life imitating art, in 2016 a member of the
British political party UKIP named “Malcolm Biggs” was criticised and forced to
stand down when it was revealed he’d been a former member of a nationalist,
pro-apartheid party called the New Britain Party.

The War Prayer is
the name of a short story by Mark Twain, in which the citizens of a small town
pray in church for victory in a war, but a stranger stands up and makes it
clear the horror and death that they are wishing for.

Londo names his wives as "Pestilence", "Famine" and "Death" as a nod to the Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse. That means that Londo himself is, of course, War.

Unanswered Questions:
Why is Kosh studying images of Earth?

How did the Homeguard attackers gain access to the highly
secure and well-guarded Green Sector?

Mistakes, Retcons and
Lamentations: Sinclair says that Dr. Benjamin Kyle was recalled to Earth to
work alongside the President after seeing Kosh’s true appearance, and Lyta
Alexander was recalled to Psi Corps HQ a week later. However, later episodes
reveal that Lyta left B5 a few weeks after the incident whilst A2 confirmed that Dr. Kyle had left
only a few days earlier (he bumped into Dr. Franklin, his replacement, at Io),
almost a year later.

In Ivanova’s quarters, her door opens by itself before
Malcolm starts moving towards it. Oddly, the same thing happens in the
following episode, between Sinclair and Delenn. It’s possible that the B5
station’s computers are good enough to pick up on “awkward moments” and
automatically open the doors as a subtle hint to get the offending party to
leave.

In PM Delenn didn’t
know what poetry was, but in this episode we meet a Minbari poet. According to Straczynski,
the Minbari definition of poetry (tee’la,
a poem-song) is somewhat different and Delenn had never learned the English
word, but the concept always existed among the Minbari.

Behind the Scenes: Straczynski
wrote the outline for the episode, which he then gave to D.C. Fontana to flesh
out. Fontana was also given the completed scripts and a recording of the pilot
episode to work from when plotting the episode, but struggled since one of the
requirements of the script was to incorporate Ivanova’s old flame. Fontana
tried to make it work but noted that it was a “stock situation”.

Claudia Christian didn’t buy Ivanova’s relationship with
Malcolm, noting that character was a “jerk” from the off.

Fontana introduced the relationship between the young
Centauri nobles. Straczynski was sceptical until she explained how their
presence affected Londo, and allowed his romantic, nostalgic side (previously
seen in A3) to come out again. Straczynski
was inspired by this idea, and added the “My shoes are too tight and I’ve
forgotten how to dance,” speech. Peter Jurasik felt the speech was well-written
but he didn’t bring his best game to the material and struggled to sell it
emotionally.

D.C. Fontana’s experience writing the episode saw her take a
different tack when Straczynski invited her back later in the season: she came
up with her own idea which so impressed Straczynski that he dropped his own
planned outline in its favour. This script, filmed as Legacies(A17) is notable for completely
transforming Babylon 5’s planned
five-year story arc, but more on that when we get there.

Ivanova growing coffee plants in hydroponics against
regulations was a character trait inherited from Laurel Takashima in PM. The PM special edition restores Takashima’s discussion of the coffee
plants, suggesting that Ivanova may have taken over their growing and
maintenance from Takashima when she arrived on the station.

Straczynski was dismayed to turn on Deep Space Nine and see the episode The Homecoming, which depicts Quark being branded by anti-alien
Bajoran extremists, the same thing that happens to Shaal Mayan in this episode.
He considered cutting the scene or digitally removing the brand (which would
have been expensive), but decided to leave it in after fans on GENIE convinced
him it would be fine.

Familiar Faces: Writer
Dorothy “D.C.” Fontana is best-known for her extensive and well-regarded work
on the original Star Trek series,
where she served as script editor for the first two seasons. She frequently
rewrote episodes to incorporate Gene Roddenberry’s story notes. She later
worked on Star Trek: The Animated Series,
Logan’s Run, The Six Million Dollar Man and Buck
Rogers in the 25th Century. She returned to work on Star Trek: The Next Generation as an associate producer, but left during
the first season after falling out with Gene Roddenberry.

Review: This
is an episode which feels like it should land a lot more squarely than it
does, confronting as it does racism, nationalism and racial tensions and
also featuring a strong turn by Peter Jurasik and especially Stephen Furst, who
finally gets to stand up to Londo, not to mention the second appearance by Kosh
since the pilot. However, much of the dialogue is inspid, the villain Biggs
lacks charm or charisma and ultimately everything is resolved a bit too neatly.
Also, Malcolm Biggs’ jumper is a crime against humanity. ***

Kosh: “We take no interest in the affairs of
others.” (yeah, right)

Londo: “Love? What does love have to do with
marriage?”

Londo: “Here are my three wives: Pestilence, Famine
and Death. Do you think I married them for their personalities? Their
personalities could shatter entire planets! Arranged marriages, every one. But
they worked out, they inspired me! Knowing that they are waiting at home for me
is what keeps me here, seventy-five light-years away!”

The iconic Minbari warcruiser first debuts in And the Sky Full of Stars.

Plot: Sinclair
and Garibaldi are forced to discipline a security guard, Benson, after he runs
up gambling debts in the Casino. To help pay off his debt, Benson agrees to
smuggle some equipment on board for two secretive men, known only as “Knights”.
The Knights set up a complex machine in their quarters and then, in the dead of
night, take Sinclair prisoner and drug him.

Sinclair awakens on board a deserted, empty Babylon 5. The
second Knight appears and tells him he is being held in a virtual reality
cybernet. Sinclair demands to know what is going on and the Knight tells him
that many people on Earth want to know why the Minbari surrendered at the
Battle of the Line ten years ago. Sinclair was there and must know. Sinclair
tells him he blacked out during the battle and thus can’t remember what
happened, but the Knight thinks that’s too convenient an answer. Sinclair
begins to suffer flashbacks to the battle, which the cybernet visualises. After
over three years of war, the Minbari fleet had launched its assault on Earth
itself. Dozens of warcruisers advanced on the defensive line being maintained
around Earth by Earthforce’s remaining warships. Sinclair was a fighter pilot,
commanding Alpha Squadron. Initially they were supposed to maintain the line,
but when another pilot (Lt. Mitchell) broke ranks to fire on a Minbari ship,
the line fragmented and Alpha Squadron was wiped out. Sinclair’s ship was
heavily damaged and he decided to ram the Minbari flagship. The malfunction
apparently damaged the gravitational compensators and the g-forces caused
Sinclair to black out. When he woke up some 24 hours had passed and the war was
over. The Minbari had surrendered. The
Knight angrily accuses Sinclair of lying, wondering if Sinclair was perhaps
taken on board the Minbari cruiser and brainwashed into becoming a Minbari
agent to poison Earth from within. That way the Minbari could conquer Earth
without suffering the colossal losses an invasion would cost them. Sinclair
denies this, but suddenly has a flash of cowled, grey figures surrounding him.
Sinclair begins to wonder if the Minbari really did do something to him.

Ambassador Delenn reports Sinclair’s failure to turn up to a
diplomatic meeting to Garibaldi. Garibaldi discovers that Benson’s debts have
been paid off and goes looking for him. Scared, Benson asks the Knights for
help, but they shoot him and dump his body out of an airlock.

Sinclair begins to suffer strong flashbacks to events he
cannot remember, especially after he recalls what the Minbari assassin said to
him last year (“There is a hole in your mind,” PM). Sinclair at last
remembers that he didn’t black out, but was instead captured by the Minbari.
They tortured and interrogated him before presiding him before the Minbari Grey
Council. The Grey Council scanned him with a triangular device. The last thing
he remembers is pulling open the cowl of a Minbari. The shock of the released
memory overloads the cybernet, allowing Sinclair to escape. The other Knight
pursues him but Sinclair manages to kill him. Sinclair is tracked to the
Zocalo, where Delenn finds him. He passes out. As he recovers the other Knight
- his interrogator - is revealed to have suffered severe memory loss as a
result of the cybernet overload. He goes back to Earth empty-handed, whilst
Sinclair records his new memories in his log, along with an interesting fact:
the Minbari whose face he exposed was Delenn. Delenn receives a visit from
another member of the Grey Council, who commands her to kill Sinclair should he
recall the truth.

Dating the Episode: Sinclair
was born on 3 May 2218 but is still 39 years old in this episode. More
succinctly, Garibaldi’s copy of Universe
Today is dated 11 April 2258.

Dating the Line: This
episode nods to one of the biggest questions in the show: when did the Battle
of the Line take place? By almost all internal evidence, the battle takes place
in mid-to-late 2247. The evidence is thus:

Episode PM,
taking place on 3 January 2257, says that the war was “almost” ten years ago.

This episode (taking place before May 2258) and
the opening narration for the season say that the war was “ten years ago”.

Episode A13
(taking place in August 2258) says that the war was “eleven years ago”.

Episode B1
and its companion comic DC1 (both
taking place in January 2259) say that the war ended “twelve years ago”.

Episode C13
(taking place in July 2260) says that the war began exactly “fifteen years ago”.

Numerous episodes, but most notably TVM1, say that that the war lasted for
about two years (although B1 does
suggest it was closer to three).

However, the official dating sources, including the DVD
special features and the Babylon 5 Encyclopaedia,
all date the Battle of the Line to late 2248, despite the fact that the TV
references clearly favour a date of 2247.

The Arc: Contrary to what he always believed,
Sinclair did not black out at the Battle of the Line. He was captured by the
Minbari, tortured, interrogated and then scanned by the Grey Council
themselves. Presumably the Minbari wiped his memory of the event and then set
him adrift in space. What this has to do with the Minbari surrender remains unknown,
although we find out more clues in episodes A13, A16, A17,
A19 and A20 before all is
revealed in episode B1. We see the Minbari side of these events in
episode TVM1. The belief that the Minbari want to subvert Earth from
within is reiterated much more strongly in episodes C5, C6, C8-C10,
D8 and D17-D19.

The Minbari use a strange triangular device to scan Sinclair.
We learn more about this device in episode A20
and its capabilities in episode A22.

Dr. Franklin asks Delenn what she got up to during the
Earth-Minbari War. Delenn replies that is a topic for discussion at another
time. We find out what she was doing in episodes D9 and TVM1, though this
episode and episode B1 shine some
light on this as well.

We learn that during the war Franklin was asked to hand over
his medical notes on the Minbari to Earthforce so they could create a genetic
weapon to use against them. He refused and burned his notes. We see this in
episode TVM1. It is referred to
again in episode B10.

At one point in the episode Garibaldi is seen reading a
newspaper, Universe Today. Some of the headlines refer to events in the
story arc:

“Psi Corps in Election Tangle” is a reference to
Psi Corps illegally recommending to their members which vice-presidential
candidate to vote for in the elections held in episode A1. This is
referred to in episode B2.

“Narns Settle Raghesh (sic) III Controversy” is
a reference to the events of episode A1.

“Homeguard Leader Convicted” is a reference to
episode A7, although this specifically references Homeguard’s Earthside
leader, Jacob Lester, who was arrested after attacking the Minbari embassy on
Earth.

“San Diego Still Considered Too Radioactive for
Occupancy” refers to revelations made in episode A1 (that San Diego has
been destroyed by a terrorist nuclear attack), but may be a cover for the
events of episode B6.

“Is There Something Living in Hyperspace?” is
referred to in episode B4.

“Minbari Poet Accorded Honours” is presumably a
reference to Shaal Mayan (from A7)
who was on her way to Earth (although a misprint renders it ‘Minbari Pirate Accorded Honours’!).

Although nothing is ever confirmed on-screen, according to Larry
DiTillio the Knights are actually members of the covert organisation Bureau 13,
which is referenced in episode B6.

The Minbari Grey Council member who visits Delenn has a
triangular object on his forehead. This is an implant which all Grey Council
members possess, but simple cloaking fields render them invisible until such
time as it is needed. It can detect the presence of other cloaked beings. We
see Delenn’s implant in episode A13.

Sinclair’s angry demand of “What do you want?” echoes around
the Minbari Grey Council chamber. We learn its significance, and why the
Minbari are not keen on that question, in episode A13.

When Sinclair’s Starfury attacks the Minbari warcruiser, the
display reads out “NEGATIVE LOCK”. This is a reference to the Minbari
warcruiser having stealth technology that makes it hard for Earth sensors to
lock onto them. This is explored further in episode B1.

Background: There are some on Earth who believe that
the Minbari surrender is actually a sinister cover for a more insidious plan to
subvert Earth from within at a far lower cost in Minbari lives. However,
Sinclair notes that the Minbari fleet was completely unbeatable by human
weapons and could have laid waste to Earth with no real trouble.

Earthforce personnel can gamble, but only to the tune of 50
credits a week. They cannot get in debt as it may compromise station security.

Garibaldi (and presumably any other security officer) can
override the locks of any door on the station to gain access.

The B5 edition of Universe
Today costs 50 millicredits. “Millicredit” is probably the cent to
‘credit’s’ dollar, meaning there is a pretty straightforward way of working out
the value of items in the 23rd Century (1 credit = 1 dollar).

Babylon 5 is a useful place for embassies from different
races to be established close together, but many of the worlds also have
bilateral relations: there are Centauri and Minbari embassies on Earth, for
example (and, as we later learn, a Centauri diplomatic mission on Minbar, which
is expanded into a full embassy in Season 3).

Jeffrey David Sinclair was born on 3 May 2218, on Mars. He
joined Earthforce in 2237 (aged 19), completing his fighter pilot training in
2240 (age 21) and was made squad leader in 2241 (age 22). By the Battle of the
Line he was commander of Alpha Squadron, defending Earth in the Battle of the
Line at the end of the Earth-Minbari War. This took place in 2247 or 2248 (age
28-29). Sinclair is 39 years old in this episode.

This episode marks the first appearance of the Minbari
Sharlin-class warcruiser (although it won’t be named that for many years).
Designed by Ron Thornton, the Sharlin was designed to be unusual-looking with a
vertical orientation and was designed to look elegant and deadly in equal
measures.

Also debuting in this episode is the Niall-class Minbari
fighter, the most powerful and manoeuvrable starfighter of the younger races
with powerful beam weapons.

The second-most-senior medical doctor on Babylon 5 is Dr.
Henandez, who is referenced in this episode and appears in A10.

Virtual reality cybernets beam three-dimensional images
directly into the human brain. Their use is considered dangerous and use a significant
amount of energy.

There is an Earthforce military base in the Tigris sector.

During battle, a damaged Starfury can eject its entire
cockpit as a lifeboat. We see this in greater details in episodes B11 and C10.

References: This
episode is very consciously a homage to the bizarre 1960s British SF show The Prisoner, in which a British spy –
played by Patrick McGoohan – is held captive and a battery of strange
techniques are used to get him to give up his secrets. The Prisoner is one of Straczynski’s favourite shows.

The title is a reference to a line in the pilot episode: “The
sky was full of stars and every star was an exploding ship, one of ours.” Some
sources say this is a line cut from the original edit an restored in the
Special Edition, but is erroneous; the line was always in the episode.

Some fans questioned why the same Starfury design was still
in use a decade after the war. However, this is not unusual in military design:
the current American front-line fighter remains the F-15 Eagle, which entered
service in the late 1970s and will not be retired until close to its 50th birthday.
If a design is strong, the internal electronics and outboard weapon systems can
be upgraded whilst the external main airframe remains the same.

Unanswered Questions:
Who, exactly, are the Knights working for?

Mistakes, Retcons and
Lamentations: Universe Today’s
proof-readers were clearly having a day off. “Ragesh III” is misspelt “Raghesh”,
Psi Corps is incorrectly rendered as Psi-Corps and a “Minbari Poet” becomes a “Minbari
Pirate”.

In this episode “the Line” appears to be a patchwork of
warship flotillas and fighter squadrons strung around the entire Earth-Moon
system (the moon is shown to be eclipsing Earth in one shot). In B1 the Minbari warcruisers are shown
much closer to Earth during the same battle. In TVM1 the Line is shown to consist of an (implausibly massive)
number of fighters and warships in low Earth orbit with fighting taking place
quite close to the atmosphere.

Mitchell breaks off to attack a Minbari fighter and is heard
in dialogue to still be engaging the fighter, but the CG shows him firing at a
Minbari warcruiser instead.

The Minbari Grey Council member orders Delenn to kill
Sinclair if necessary: this seems to flatly contradict Minbari standing orders
and morality in episode B1, which
the Grey Council is well aware of.

On the widescreen presentations of the series, the CGI is
often cropped and zoomed (a result of Warner Brothers not stumping up the cash
to properly do the CG in widescreen when the series was first made). On this episode
this means losing the “NEGATIVE LOCK” on Sinclair’s Starfury display screen,
setting up later events in episode B1.

Behind the Scenes: Director
Janet Greek worked hard with Director of Photography John Flinn to create a
unique new look for this episode, simply by turning off most of the set lights
and created spotlights surrounded by void for the flashbacks.

This was Michael O’Hare’s favourite episode of the series,
both for the focus on his character, the taut direction and his scenes with
Christopher Neame, an actor he rated highly.

According to O’Hare, he did not have to dig very deep to
find Sinclair’s pain in this episode due to ongoing events in his private life.
“I understood what the experience was of losing everything, having everything
taken away from me.” In retrospect, and knowing he would soon quit the show due
to mental health issues, these lines take on a different meaning.

O’Hare wanted to pay tribute to the military spirit in this
episode, as both his brothers served in the US armed forces. It was his idea in
the cockpit scene to turn in different directions and each time see a Starfury
exploding.

Walter Koenig was originally cast as Knight Two, but
suffered a heart attack some months earlier and was still recovering when this
episode was filmed. Patrick McGoohan was then cast, but had to leave the
country during shooting (possibly to shoot his scenes for the movie Braveheart). The producers cast British
character actor Christopher Neame instead, who ended up doing a great job, and
Koenig was recast as Bester in episode A6
(which was shot after A8 but aired
earlier). Koenig notes this worked out in the long run, as Bester became a
recurring character.

This episode is the second to reference the fact the San
Diego has been irradiated with a dirty bomb and rendered completely
uninhabitable. Straczynski noted that he lived in San Diego from 1974 to 1981
and was subjected to a brutal mugging there. His decision to nuke the city was
down to that, although he also noted he had some fun memories of the city as
well.

The original plan for the flashback scenes was to “step-print”
the footage (removing intervening frames to give a slightly uncomfortable,
slow-motion feeling). The CGI was created with this in mind. However, it was
decided that the live-action footage did not look scan well in this mode and it
was returned to normal. This left a disconnect between the dream-like CGI and
the normal live-action footage which Ron Thornton felt was jarring.

At one point the Ikarran war machine from A4 was going to show up to haunt
Sinclair’s hallucination, but Straczynski was already suspecting that that episode
was not going to go down well and cut the scene.

Familiar Faces: Judson
Scott should be familiar to genre fans from his appearance on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as Khan’s
henchman Joachim. He also played a drug addict in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Symbiosis, and a few years after this episode would appear as a
Romulan commander in the well-regarded Voyager
episode Message in a Bottle.

Christopher Neame has a long-standing history of stage and screen
roles in the UK. In 1975 he played Kaiser Wilhelm II in the drama series Edward the Seventh, and also had
recurring roles on Colditz and Secret Army. He played the Time Lord
villain Skagra in the Doctor Who
story Shada, but the episode was
never finished (due to a production strike) and his role ended up on the
cutting room floor (at least until the complete portions of the episode were
released on video, many years later). In the 1980s he moved to Hollywood and appeared
in numerous movies, including Licence to
Kill, Ghostbusters II, Suburban Commando, Hellbound, Ground Zero
and The Prestige. His US TV credits
are extremely lengthy as well.

Director Janet Greek had previously worked on St. Elsewhere, Max Headroom, L.A. Law, Northern Exposure and Melrose Place. She impressed Straczynski
with her work on this episode and became his “go-to” director for all of the
major arc episodes of the series. She took a break during the third and fourth
seasons to work on other projects (including Xena: Warrior Princess) but would return for the fifth season and one
of the TV movies.

Review: One
of the strongest episodes of the first season, successful in its taut, claustrophobic
direction and its direct going-for-the-jugular approach of furthering the main
story arc. The episode, like many of the early ones in the series, is let down
by its production values but overall this is a winner. ****½

Sinclair: "When I looked at those ships I didn't just see my death, I saw the death of the whole damned human race."

Thank you for reading The Wertzone. To help me provide better content, please consider contributing to my Patreon page and other funding methods, which will also get you exclusive content weeks before it goes live on my blogs. The Cities of Fantasy series is debuting on my Patreon feed and you can read it there one month before being published on the Wertzone.